DESCRIPTION
"SPADINO"; GIOVANNI PAOLO CASTELLI (Rome, 1659 - 1730).
"Still life with birds and fruit".
Oil on canvas.
Bibliography: Europ. Art, II. n.6. June 1991, pg. 57, image pg. 59.
Size: 92 x 130 cm; 125 x 164 cm (frame).
The combination of juicy fruits and exotic birds was repeatedly explored by Spadino, a painter in whose still lifes the most sensualist and exuberant side of the Baroque. The ripeness of the fruits has reached the highest degree of succulence (some are even beginning to open, announcing the ephemeral nature of their splendour). The flowers are also at the peak of their fragrance, ready to wither. In the background, Roman aqueducts form the perfect backdrop for the scenographic composition of nature. This carefully chosen, distinctly baroque scenography is enhanced by the careful study of light, based on a rhythmic interplay of alternating plant shadows and gleams that draw the eye to figs and grapes. The Flemish heritage can be seen in the accomplished pearly qualities of the fruit skins and the fleshy hearts of the split melons.
Known as "Spadino", Giovanni Paolo Castelli was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, mainly active in Rome and specialising in still-life painting, mainly flowers and fruit. He came from a family of artists whose patron was Jan Herinans, a Flemish painter linked to the Pamphili family and specialising in floral compositions. Castelli therefore grew up in direct contact with the artistic circles of Rome at the time and began his training with his older brother, Bartolomeo Castelli (1641-1686), by then a well-known still-life painter. From 1674 he worked as an independent master and after Bartolomeo's death in 1686 he took over the family workshop. Giovanni Paolo Castelli's language also reveals the influence of the Flemish artist Abraham Brueghel, who was active in Italy. In fact, it seems that between 1671 and 1674 Castelli furthered his training in Brueghel's workshop. Castelli painted mainly rich cups and vases with flowers and fruit, with a personal style marked by a brilliant palette that emphasises the contours of the objects, rendered with meticulous detail and attention to quality. His language reveals the Flemish forms that he may have learned from his godfather Herinans, and later also from Brueghel, during the latter's stay in Rome before his final departure for Naples. His language was continued by his son, Bartolomeo Spadino (1696-1738). The origin of the nickname inherited by his son, "Spadino", is uncertain; it literally means "the man with the sword", and was already held by his father, just as he would pass it on to his son. Scholars raise the question of why he inherited the nickname and not his older brother, suggesting that the answer is the shape of his signature, which is very angular, like the blade of a knife. Other historians suggest that it may be due to the fact that the artist used a long, narrow palette, the shape of which is reminiscent of a sword. However, it is documented that Giovanni Paolo was imprisoned between 1680 and 1683 for murder, which may indicate that he earned his nickname by killing his enemy in a duel. Now considered one of the most important still-life painters of the Roman school of the late 17th and early 18th century, Giovanni Paolo Castelli is currently represented in the Pinacoteca Civica Fortunato Duranti in Montefortino, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Fesch in Ajaccio and the Pinacoteca in Rieti, among other collections.
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